Arne Slot lasted two years at Liverpool FC after replacing Jurgen Klopp and has shown Enzo Maresca what he can and cannot do at Manchester City
Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca
Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca(Image: Getty Images)
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How do you follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest managers the club has ever seen? With great difficulty, if you are Arne Slot. After a dream first year at Liverpool that saw the Dutchman coast to the Premier League title ahead of Arsenal and Manchester City, he will not even get a third season after being relieved of his duties.
Slot had managed the bare minimum of achieving Champions League football for next term after a wretched campaign that was not dissimilar to the one Pep Guardiola endured last year. But not only was Slot missing the CV that Guardiola has, he also fell short of what Jurgen Klopp embodied at Anfield.
Having feasted with a manager who made the stadium rock and gave them so many great nights, whatever credit Slot earned from winning the league in his first season was quickly used up and Liverpool fans have been fed up for a while now.
When the results stopped coming, scrutiny of the performances grew. In games such as their 3-0 defeat to City at the Etihad in November, Liverpool resembled not just a shadow of the team they were but a shadow of the team they should have been after spending £450million to improve a title-winning squad.
And if the football gave little to keep Liverpool fans believing, Slot lost more of them in his press conferences. Whether it was tactics, expectations - where there were a few unnecessary swipes at the Klopp era - or even ticket prices, Slot time and again underwhelmed when given the opportunity to win supporters over to his banners.
The Anfield crowd backs their manager with patience, as happens at the Etihad and Old Trafford, so to hear boos for substitutions that Slot was making in the final weeks felt like the point of no return. That has now been confirmed, with Andoni Iraola installed as the early favourite.
If it means another change of manager at a top club, and as Enzo Maresca takes over from Guardiola, it is a useful lesson for the Italian in what he can and cannot afford to do at the Etihad. As Guardiola said, he will get more protection than other clubs and should never lose sight of being himself.
At the same time though, he always has to be offering something to the club and its fans - either in terms of results or belief in his methods. Maresca will not get everything right, so he has to ensure that there remains a reason for somebody important to be fighting his corner when things don't work out.
Guardiola is an even more difficult act to follow than Klopp was, but Maresca has now seen some of what not to do as he looks to succeed at the Etihad.